Mr Burke says the policy is already deterring some asylum seekers, but could not say exactly how many had decided not to go ahead with the journey.

"For everything that's been attempted in the past, with people smugglers, it's become clear that the only way to affect them is to take their product away and to take their customers away," he said.

"The regional resettlement arrangements take the product away from people smugglers and the information getting out shows that now we're at the beginnings of their customers being taken away from them as well."

'Significant number' of asylum seekers applying to return home: Burke

Mr Burke said a "significant number" of asylum seekers who had already been transferred to PNG's Manus Island processing centre are applying to return to their home countries.

"We now have a significant number of the people who have been transferred to Manus Island in meetings with the International Organisation for Migration, the IOM, organising their transfers back home," he said.

"In each of the instances of those interviews so far they have been people who do not have papers with them so those returns won't be able to be immediate but they are a very significant number of people now who are having those meetings with the IOM to organise their return back home."